Wow lots of usefull info. as i read i just keep coming up with more question my next one is as i read it sounds like a lot of people seperate their roosters from their hensis this something we should do and if so why

It kind of gives the hens some peace so they can concentrate on egg production for one reason. They wont get all beat up for show either. I put all my roos in 1 pen and they duke it out for a day until boss roo is determined.

It is certainly advisable to allow the hens a rest. I like to do it for several additional reasons. One male is pretty much like the males of any other species: they play favorites, particularly in a large flock. By rotating males, this minimizes that and contibutes to having all the females fertilized ( my individual breeder flocks have 10-12 hens and I trace lineage by the flock and not the male - ask rob about line breeding). It also means that if I hit a 'dud', I can find out fairly quickly and eliminate him without wondering what is goin' on. I also seem to have a problem with turkeys in that the male fertility seems to go down after 2-3 weeks and if I rotate them out they revitalize their 'virility' and I can put them back in after two rotations. I sometimes wonder if this isn't a problem with roosters as well - particularly the older ones (no comments, please). It means additional time and expense and if a person is solely interested in eggs and/or meat, there is no reason why they can't periodically replace their flock through any reputable hatchery.

Yes, the hens appreciate a break. In my situation, I can't have crowing at 5:00 in the morning and I have one big coop that is pretty sound-proof. So I watch for things like a hen losing feathers on her back and then I separate that hen (with a few girl buddies). I guess I'm doing it backwards because for me, it's necessary to get all the roosters into the main coop at night. I'll pull out a few girls for a couple of weeks or so and rotate the girls around like that (but they all hang out together with just a wire fence separation so I don't have problems with re-establishing the pecking order). Most of the time though, my whole flock is together and my main approach to not having the hens overworked by the roosters is to have a good ratio. I'm working on that right now with a bunch of young pullets coming up.

Leaving roosters by themselves won't guarentee them staying nice. It often helps because the rooster won't have anything to dominate over, but some roosters are just territorial just in case a hen (or another rooster) does happen to come along. Docility depends on the breed and/or the individual. More often then not, the larger breeds tend to be more tame then the smaller ones, but in the end, it depends mostly on the individual and the conditions it's raised in. Hope this helps.

A good ratio of cock to hen is generally 1:3-5. They can also be kept as pairs and trios, but for a bigger flock the 3-5 hens per cock is a good ratio to keep them in. In your case, I don't know how aggressive Orpingtons are as breeders, but they should be fine the way they are. If fighting is occuring more than it usually is or the hens are getting beat up, you can always remove a rooster or add some more hens, whatever you choose. or vice versa.

I'm shooting for 1 rooster per 10 hens. Right now I have 3 roosters with 16 hens and I have about 4 hens who are getting bare backs and there is a little too much chasing going on, in my opinion.

Lauren,

I have a rooster that stays penned by himself and a few weeks of that turned him to be even more aggressive. He has bit us a couple of times now. I'm finding that giving him a few girls 2 or 3 times a week actually calms him down! When he is "hen-less" for a week straight, one of us ends up getting bit. He is isolated because he is such a fighter and my other roosters were suffering, but keeping him alone has made him more aggressive as we never had a problem with him biting us until we separated him like this. I don't think there are any real "answers" to the rooster behaviors. I think that we can all share our experiences but the bottom line is that there are individual personalities that come into play and we can only guess about how different situations might turn out.

I think a more docile rooster can be selected for in a breeding program, but you could go too far in this selection and end up with chickens just too laid back. I am of the opinion that a testy roo would also fertilize the hens more effectivly. That said, my nasty roo is sterile, or at least he was this breeding season/